Healthdaq: Changing the face of health and social care recruitment

We profile one of the biggest winners from the Personnel Today Awards in 2024 as the deadline for submissions for 2025 approaches. Healthdaq won the Excellence in Public Service Award in recognition of its contribution to reducing Northern Ireland’s dependence on agency workers. What’s next?

Health and Social Care trusts of Northern Ireland will stop using agencies for social worker recruitment in the summer of 2023. This was a bold decision in a time when healthcare employers are claiming they face acute shortages of skills. The trusts have since recruited over 600 social workers, in part thanks to a partnership between Healthdaq, a recruitment technology company.

Healthdaq was awarded the Excellence in Public Service Award for these results and others at the Personnel Today Awards last year. The innovative subscription-based model, which encompassed marketing, technology, and support, reduced the costs of agency social workers from PS10.2 to PS3.2, and ultimately ensured that no agency worker was employed for these roles.

The company also received a nomination in the Talent Acquisition Partner Category for its collaboration with the Western Health and Social Care Trust. This led to the lowest vacancy rates in Northern Ireland.

Stephen McLarnon is the CEO of Healthdaq. He believes that there’s more of an “access issue” than a talent shortage when it comes time to recruit health and social workers.

He says that ineffective recruitment ads or outdated technology coupled with inefficient process are the biggest drivers of agency spending. With the right marketing and optimized processes, you can generate significant hires.

In partnership with local universities, the Department of Health Northern Ireland was able to streamline certain processes, such as applications for newly qualified social workers.

Overcoming obstacles

He says that healthcare recruitment is by nature a cumbersome process. It’s highly regulated and the employment checks are required to speed up the process. In the past, it has taken 140 days or more to fill some NHS positions. Healthdaq helped six trusts employ over 7,000 people during the Covid Pandemic and continues to expand its client list. It now manages all non-clinical recruiting for one client and saves them PS3,75 million in agency costs.

While saving money is important there are also other factors that need to be considered. Supporting HR teams to become more independent in their recruitment will not only help them reduce the time to fill roles, but also improve outcomes for patients and taxpayers.

McLarnon says: “Take, for example, the social care market in the UK. Domiciliary care workers, a group of relatively unknown but critical staff, support the flow of patients from hospitals and prevent admissions by providing patient care at home.

If a trust or a council has 600 care package that it can’t fulfil, then that’s potentially 600 patients that won’t get discharged from the hospital.

Healthdaq works with trusts and councils to organize open days, enhance their marketing, and fine-tune their onboarding. This allows them to better manage their processes and attract more people. The company has introduced a subscription-based model that will make the costs more predictable, and a flat fee regardless of how many positions are filled. McLarnon says that despite its successes – Healthdaq won Partner of the year for Talent Acquisition in 2023 — there is still pressure on Healthdaq to “prove itself” to NHS employers. But winning awards helps.

The NI Chief social worker invited Healthdaq and the trust’s social work and HR leads to Stormont to celebrate the award 2024 and the fact that it had achieved its goal of having zero agency social workers. Meanwhile, the Minister of Health hosted a separate celebration.

McLarnon says that it was a huge achievement for the Minister and Chief Social Worker to recognize the hard work done by the trusts, as this kind of recognition is not always given to the public sector.

Healthdaq’s impact on social and health care will continue for many years to come, as public spending on the NHS and local councils is reduced and budgets are scrutinized more closely.

The deadline for the Personnel Today Awards has been extended to Monday 23 June.

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